For Men, the Prescription is Games

A new study shows that video games may actually help men deal with pain...believe it or not.

By IGN Staff

Reason number 2,001 that men and women come from different planets: Men may respond to games as a way to relieve pain.

A recent study found that as a way to soothe pain, video games actually helped men. The study, published in the February Journal of Pain, assigned 63 students from Haverford College in Pennsylvania to one of three events: a competitive track meet, a non-competitive treadmill run or a video auto race in which men and women competed one-on-one against same-sex opponents.

Both men and women participating in the track meet displayed a similarly reduced pain sensitivity after the event than when they were tested two days before or after the meet. But that was where the similarities ended. Women -- but not men -- demonstrated that same desensitized effect after a 10-minute treadmill run. Men -- but not women -- registered less sensitivity to pain after the sedentary video game competition.

Researchers' interpretation: If you're looking for a magic "trigger" to kill pain, "in men, it's competition; in women, it's exercise," says Wendy Sternberg, assistant psychology professor at Haverford, who led the study. But some observers aren't sure. Kelli Koltyn, associate professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who researches analgesic states, expressed surprise that men didn't show lowered pain-level responses after running on the treadmill.

"This study's running time was shorter than the average 20- to 30-minute exercise times used in most studies," she says; the study authors acknowledged they may not have challenged the men enough. Koltyn also says the ice water test produced less consistent results than tests that have been used in other studies. Oh well...we're going to keep on dreaming.

Until they do figure everything out, take a hearty helping of Black & White with a dab of Tribes 2 and don't call us in the morning...we'll still be asleep under our comfy, comfy desks.